The Truth Will Set Her Free
by Sqydd
Summary: Mira's newest matchmaking scheme occurs one fated Valentine's Day: her chocolates were baked with a potion to make anyone (the girl) confess their feelings to the one that they liked (the boy.) Suffice it to say, Lucy avoided Natsu the rest of the day.


Valentine's Day was, as all other holidays, nothing short of a spectacle in the Fairy Tail Guild. Decorations were created by Reedus, and with a little magic there were winged sweethearts flying around, lovely cloth streamers, and an adequate amount of alcohol to get even the most tight-lipped of bastards crying their undying love to the woman of their life. It also might as well as been Mirajane's birthday for how excited she became every time the holiday rolled around. If not for her homemade chocolates that were damn near worth dying for, Lucy would've stayed home, especially considering that one way or another that year, Mira would find a way to expose her feelings to Natsu.

The _when_ or _how_ was unspecific after so long, but all Lucy knew was that she was very much in love with her teammate. He may have been loud, brash, and tactless in all forms, but he was also brave, caring, and knew her better than anyone still alive. Even his nightly break-ins stopped being so intrusive and more...expected. And one night he and Happy took a solo job, she couldn't sleep a wink without his warmth in the bed with her. That was when she realized how deep in it she was. She wasn't going to tell him either—hell no. He was _Natsu_ —even if he did understand that kind of romantic love, he surely didn't reciprocate it. He was the type of guy not to think past his next punch and meal, not necessarily in that order. Besides, they were good as friends, and as long as she could still see him and talk to him everyday, she was fine. Mira didn't think so, on the other hand, which was Lucy's big issue with that year's Valentine's Day.

She walked into the Guild that fated day to see the same of last year: breathtaking decor, soft music, and a muted brawl in the corner. Like every other entrant, she immediately made a beeline to the bar where Mira's chocolates were stacked high on a platter. The size of her palm and carved into little flowers, they were flavored white, strawberry, and dark, a triumvirate of pleasure for all tastes. Lucy was just reaching for the nearest one when Mira suddenly snapped: "Don't take one."

"W-What?" she squeaked, surprised, as she yanked her hand back to her chest. Mira blinked at her and smiled apologetically.

"Good morning, Lucy. I didn't mean you." Lucy turned and saw the true victim of Mira's anger. Romeo raised his hands in surrender, a baffled expression on his face.

"Why not? Everyone always get chocolates."

"Not this time. This year, these chocolates are for the girls only," Mira says, wagging a finger reprovingly. He sighed a complaint before shuffling away. Lucy raises her eyebrows.

"Only for the females?" Mira winks in response.

"Call it a special treat." Lucy wanted to be suspicious, but those chocolates _were_ worth dying over.

"Have you seen Natsu?" she asked through a bite of strawberry-flavored. Mira tapped her chin in thought before shrugging.

"Not at all. He must be running late."

"On one of the Guild's biggest holidays?"

"Oh, you know how he is." Lucy dropped it then because she did, in fact, know how Natsu could be sometimes. She went over to Levy's usual corner table and found her oddly alone.

"Hey, Levy-chan," Lucy greeted, sitting opposite to her. "Where are Jet and Droy?"

"They went racing to the florist's to see who could get me the prettiest flower first," she sighed, closing a book she'd been idling over. "I wish they hadn't, though. It's not fun sitting alone on Valentine's day."

"Tell me about it." Levy blinked and raised her head, looking around.

"Where's Natsu?"

"Most likely eating a diner out of stock. I don't know."

"Hm-hmm," she hummed, resting her chin in her hand. "Men, huh?"

"Yeah..." Lucy glanced over and saw the brawl still going strong, which was unusual without Natsu to hold things together. She noticed Gray going head-to-head with Gajeel, even more unusual, and Erza working to break them apart even as three other bodies clung to her. Juvia stayed her usual distance behind a pillar, although this time she was holding a large chocolate box and mumbling fervently, probably psyching herself up to give it. Lucy momentarily entertained herself with the idea of baking her own chocolates to give to Natsu and immediately grimaced at the thought. He wasn't fond of sugar, and even if he was, he would've gobbled it without a second thought for the meaning. Well, a girl could dream.

"Well, enough of that," Levy said, drawing Lucy's attention back. "Did you finish your latest chapter?"

"Not yet. I caught a little writer's block at the current part but I'm sure I'll have it done by next—" Lucy cut off as the lights suddenly went out, bathing everything in darkness. Loud shouts of protest raged through the air before Erza's louder shouts cut them all off. A second later the lights returned albeit much more muted, a single spotlight bathing Mirajane in a soft glow as she stood on the stage with a microphone.

"Happy Valentine's Day you all," she said with her usual innocent expression, smiling widely at all of them. Confused and uneasy murmurs swam across the floor: _What's going on? What's Mira doing?_ "Don't be scared—nothing bad is going to happen," she continued, her smile growing wider. She opened her eyes then, and the ice-cold glint in them was enough to send shivers down every poor soul's spine. "I'm just giving things a little push. You see, these chocolates are a little more...special than the ones last year. You see," she began, raising a finger and pausing for dramatic effect, but all she actually did was give the women time to attempt to force themselves to gag. "Like I said, nothing _bad_ will happen, I just made these chocolates with a certain potion. On Valentine's Day, when the people that ingest the potion see the one that she loves, she'll confess to him on the spot!" She clapped her hands together excitedly. "Isn't that great?"

Total panic erupted in the Guild as every female blurted awkward confessions to another man. Levy squeaked something Lucy couldn't understand over the din before clapping her hands over her mouth, but Gajeel, as all the Dragon Slayers did, heard her perfectly, raising an eyebrow at it all. She flushed a deep pink and turned away before he caught her by the shoulder and spun her back into his hard chest, chuckling under his breath. Juvia confessed to Gray something that must've been even more mortifying than usual, because they both turned red afterwards. Evergreen might've confessed to Elfman, Lucy wasn't sure, as they instantly regressed into a shouting match afterwards that made it hard to tell. Of course, Bisca and Alzack were fine, having already been married, and Wendy was too—which reminded Lucy of a much, much scarier prospect.

"Oi! What's this racket!" The doors slammed open to let the usual in, but on a usual day Lucy never dreaded his appearance so much. She buried her face in her hands and melted into the crowd, trying to let their bodies hide her scent as she sneaked towards the backdoor of the Guild. She just had to avoid Natsu for the rest of the day—easy, right?

 _Wrong!_ she thought as a warm, calloused hand clamped on her shoulder.

"Hey, Lucy, why're you rushing like that?" Natsu had to stand very close for her to hear him over the noise, so close she could feel his breath ruffling her hair. He pulled her towards the empty space near the booths and spun her to face him. She staunchly kept her eyes down at his sandals as she fought to pull from his grip. "Luce— Lucy, what's going on? Why are you trying to run?"

"I just—I can't see you right now, is all. Mira's chocolates—"

"Yuck, chocolate," he complained with a snort. Then he smelled the air and spoke in a nonplussed tone: "I smell some weird magic. Did something happen to her chocolates?"

"A spell— I have to go—"

"Lucy, _talk to me._ " He switched his hand to her shoulder and grasped her chin with his other hand, forcing her head up. She raised her eyes and immediately sucked in a panicked breath. Those sharp features, his penetrating gaze— Her heart fluttered madly in her rib-cage like a bird trying to escape, and the words she'd been trying to hide for the longest time built in her throat like an explosion ready to bomb their relationship. "Lucy," he pressed, eyebrows drawing together.

"Natsu," she started, her mouth moving on its own, "I want to tell you something."

"Huh? What?"

 _No no no no NO!_ she thought, panicked. "I lo—" She clamped her mouth shut so quickly she bit her tongue. Natsu was so surprised she managed to pull away from him, and before he could react she took off.

"Lucy!" he called, but she refused to turn and burst through the Guild doors. She wasn't a track star and especially not in heeled sandals, and Natsu's thunderous footsteps on the hard dirt quickly raced towards hers. She braced for a tackle but instead felt his arm snake around her waist a second before she was hoisted into the air and gained a new perspective of his backside and heels.

"NATSU PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!" she shrieked.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong!" he replied. "Don't be such a weirdo!"

"You're the weirdo for not realizing that I—"

"You what?"

"Nothing!" she squeaked, covering her reddened face with her hands. She recognized the path to her apartment a moment before Natsu began scaling her wall with one hand, easily lifting the window and tossing her in, onto her bed, and leaping in after her. She barely had time to recover before he was standing ahead of her, arms crossed and eyebrows raised expectantly. She tightened her lips and buried her face in her pillow. "Just go away, Natsu..."

"I told you I'm not going until you tell me what's up," he insisted. She kept her eyes on his pants instead of his face, working her jaw in her frustration.

"Then go ask Gray!"

"I'd rather swallow a full-sized block of ice."

"Then ask Mira or literally anyone else."

"—O-kay," he said after a moment of thought, a true rarity for him. He shook his head with a weary sigh falling from his lips. "Yeah, okay, I'll leave you alone." He sounded wounded—then again, Lucy had never so adamantly fought to keep him away. _It's just for today,_ she thought, keeping her eyes away from his as he shuffled back towards the window.

"The Guild tomorrow, okay?" she said, staring at his retreating back. His resounding silence wormed a new hole into her heart. _I'm trying to save our friendship,_ she murmured, hugging her pillow furiously. A cold gust of air swirled through the room as he disappeared. _Why does it feel like I'm hurting it instead?_

* * *

The Guild managed to calm down by the next day, and maybe even improved relationship-wise. Levy was sitting at her usual table, this time with Lucy's usual seat occupied by Gajeel. He still looked bored and disinterested in his usual Gajeel way, but he was still there as she spoke avidly about her newest book, so that was something. Gray had, if with his normal damn-life expression multiplied tenfold, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Juvia as she gushed and did a very impressive impression of a human melting into a puddle of liquid hearts. Elfman and Evergreen were arm-in-arm, but they were still bickering so Lucy had no idea what to make of that. Everybody had increased their closeness with another—well, except herself and Natsu, the only two at a considerable physical and emotional distance.

Lucy hadn't seen him the rest of that night, nor most of the morning when she had focused on psyching herself up to face him. He would have gotten the low-down from Mirajane and even with his Natsu-brain, he could have put two-and-two together and gotten four. The thought both embarrassed and frightened her almost on a primal level. She quietly entered the Guild, taking no notice from the love-stricken Mages, and returned Mira's broad smile with a weak one as her eyes roamed for that familiar face. Soon enough, she was examining the hard planes of his back and shoulders beneath his jacket as he stood, with Happy, checking the request board. His body language was casual though he was sure to have smelt or heard her, so she could've been hopeful about that at the very least. Happy turned as she slowly made her way over, giving her a grin around his salmon—he was acting normal, but she wasn't concerned about him.

"Hi, Happy," she greeted, letting him bury his little blue head in her chest as he hug-tackled her.

"Rushii, Carla gabe me dis fishb!" he slurred.

"So I guess your gift worked huh?"

"Yeah!" He thankfully swallowed before continuing, "but Natsu wasn't happy at all! He's been all in his head since yesterday and won't tell me why!"

"Oh," was all she could say in response, raising her head to him. Natsu gave a little sigh, his only acknowledgement of their little back-and-forth. Suddenly Happy squirmed wildly in Lucy's grip and she released him into the air. "There's Wendy and Carla!" he gave as means of explanation before zooming off towards the doors. She barely had time to think of a wild excuse before Natsu turned and instantly had her cornered, her back to the board and her face to his. His expression, stoic at first, showed touches of real pain.

"Are you breaking up with me?" The words came rushed, jumbled, a cacophony of sounds in a foreign song unfitting of Natsu's appearance. Lucy stared dumbly at him as one of Happy's fish, blinking wildly and her mouth dropping and closing.

"W-What? What in the world are you talking about?"

"Mira told me what she did, y'know, with the chocolates," he explained. Lucy nodded to say yes, she was following him there. "And that if you saw someone you liked, you'd tell them right off the bat—an exclamation or something."

"Confession," she corrected as per habit. He rolled his eyes but didn't stop speaking.

"I was thinking, _Okay, she'd just spill and everything be'd fine again._ But you didn't—you just gave me this _really_ weird look, and I was trying to figure out if I'd done something wrong." Her head was officially spinning then— _he_ was the one not making sense. "So I'm asking: are we breaking up?"

"—I don't... I don't get the correlation," she managed.

"Corre-what?"

"What does one thing have to do with the other?"

"You love me, so I expected you to say it?" he said slower, as if she wasn't very quick to the point. Lucy let his words sink in, and a moment later a dark blush filled her face.

"Y-You knew?"

"Of course, weirdo! We're together." Natsu said it as if it was the plainest thing in the world while Lucy sputtered like a moron.

"When did that happen!?"

"Uhh... When did you start liking me exactly?"

"You can't j-just give us a label like that on your own!"

"Well, I know I love you," he said annoyingly casually, even as Lucy's heart and face felt like exploding. Well, he was Natsu after all, the human (?) that lacked all tact, but still! "And you too, right?"

"—You already know the answer, don't you?" she mumbled after a moment.

"Yeah, but it's not as good as hearing it from you," he grinned, eyes alight with his usual fiery energy. She pushed his chest as a weak protest.

"I love you, but I'd love you more if you'd just _told me_ a long time ago." He shrugged a shoulder still with his grin.

"I told you, I just kinda figured we were together. It's not my fault you were too weird to actually talk about it."

"Idiot, it's not _my_ fault! Don't try to pin it on me because I'd rather talk things out like a real human being!" She tried smacking his broad chest but he repelled her with a single hand and a laugh for the better part of ten seconds until a chunk of ice sought its pre-programmed pattern to his skull.

"Oi, you fiery mouth breather, we've got unfinished business!"

"I ain't forget, you pervvy Popsicle!" Natsu started to turn, but at the last minute whirled around and, pinning Lucy by her shoulders, brought his lips down on hers. The contact was quick, rough, and hot—everything that described him down to the smoky aftertaste. By the time he pulled away to fight her head was spinning and her lips felt like they'd run a couple of rounds with him, but in a good way. She was completely speechless and nearly frozen standing there until Happy returned, tugging lightly on the tail of her blouse.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" he asked. She smiled and laughed, watching Natsu's furious expression as he worked on balling Gray into one of Cana's beer kegs.

"Things are right, Happy," she said, grinning. "You're not the only one to have a successful Valentine's Day."

* * *

 **Author's Note -** So, my readers, before I get into a mini-rant, I've a question: Would you want to see a story of one-shots/short stories from me? Some authors do it here and the reason why I haven't is because I never had the time or ideas before, but now I only have two classes and I've nothing but free time to sit and think of interesting NaLu situations among others. So yeah, give me a response if you're up for it. It'd give me more reason to post anyway, because although I do have those serious-steven Fairy Tail fan-fictions—like "Incendium" serious, if you've read that—they take a while to write.

On from that, I want to say that though I've never ever written "plz R&R" it's kinda a given that I want those, right? Not to say that your favorites and follows don't matter, I check those every day, but there's something deliciously personal about you taking time out of your busy day (we're all busy, that I know) and writing something, good or bad, praise or constructive criticism. Got it memorized? Okay, okay.


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